“Nice Picture Comment!” Graphicons in Facebook Comment Threads
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Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2017 “Nice Picture Comment!” Graphicons in Facebook Comment Threads Susan C. Herring Ashley Dainas Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington [email protected] [email protected] Abstract what extent graphicons are used to convey meaning in public Facebook comment threads. Facebook has increasingly incorporated graphical Facebook lends itself well to graphicon analysis, in means of communication such as emoticons, emoji, that its interface allows users to employ all six stickers, GIFs, images, and videos (‘graphicons’) into graphicon types in their private messages and all comment threads. Adapting methods of computer‐ except GIFs in comments on posts on Facebook mediated discourse analysis, we analyze the frequency Profiles, Pages, and Groups. This sets Facebook apart and pragmatic functions of each graphicon type in from other multimodal communication platforms such threads sampled from public graphicon-focused as Tumblr and Instagram, where some of the graphicon Facebook groups. Six main functions emerged from the types are either unavailable, or not commonly used. data: mention, reaction, tone modification, riffing, In what follows we first situate our investigation in action, and narrative sequence. Reaction was most relation to previous research on the use of graphical common, and emoji expressed the widest array of elements in digital conversation and identify the unique functions. We propose structural, social, and technical contribution of this study. We then describe our dataset explanations for variation in graphicon use, and of comment threads collected from public graphicon- suggest improvements for the design of conversational focused Facebook groups, along with our method- graphical elements in social media systems. ology, which employs computer-mediated discourse analysis [8] to identify the pragmatic functions of the graphicons in context. Six main functions are identified 1. Introduction and illustrated: mention, reaction, tone modification, riffing, action, and narrative sequence. Reaction was Recently the Oxford Dictionaries chose the Crying the most common function, and emoji were most Tears of Joy emoji as the 2015 word of the year, prevalent and expressed the widest array of functions, explaining that “emoji have come to embody a core whereas the other graphicon types tended to specialize aspect of living in a digital world that is visually for certain functions. We propose explanations for driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively these findings in terms of the graphicons’ structural immediate.”1 Considering this graphical symbol as a properties, ease of use, and history; we also consider ‘word’ is in line with recent popular speculation that social factors associated with their use. In concluding, emoji (in Japanese, ‘picture character’) are evolving we identify challenges that arise in graphicon analysis into a language of their own [24] – if not a complete and suggest changes that could be made to improve the grammatical system, at least a set of signs that can be design of graphical social media platforms. used to convey propositions in conversational exchanges. 2. Background In this paper, we analyze the conversational uses of emoji and five other types of graphical devices found Emoticons formed from ASCII characters have on contemporary social media platforms: emoticons, been used in computer-mediated communication stickers, GIFs, images, and videos. As a shorthand for (CMC) since 1979 [4]. The general findings of this set of devices, we introduce the term ‘graphicons,’ emoticon studies indicate that they are multifunctional a blend of ‘graphical’ and ‘icons’ (cf. Greek grafikon [27], having at least four uses in CMC that potentially ‘graphics’). In particular, we investigate how and to overlap: (1) expression of emotion [4], (2) nonverbal signaling [1, 3, 14], (3) tone management or indication of illocutionary force [4, 12, 14], and (4) as 1 http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/announcing-the- punctuation or structural markers [1, 12, 20]. oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2015/, retrieved June 14, 2016. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/41419 ISBN: 978-0-9981331-0-2 CC-BY-NC-ND 2185 Initial research on emoji suggests that they fulfill Little research has investigated how videos are similar roles as emoticons, although emoji are more included in ongoing conversational contexts, although visually complex and may be expected to function [9] investigated how young girls use video messages to somewhat differently in CMC as a consequence. For chat in VideoPal, an asynchronous communication example, [7] found that emoji had a greater effect than system designed around the exchange of videos, and emoticons on reader perceptions of a writer’s [19] analyzed a religious debate that occurred through commitment and personal mood. At the same time, the dyadic exchange of videos on YouTube. there are important limitations to emoji use, due in part GIFs are also understudied, although what research to the fact that different viewing platforms render has been done is suggestive. The preliminary analysis emoji differently. [16] found that people often of Tumblr posts carried out by [2] found that animated disagreed on the sentiment and meaning of the same GIFs typically expressed reactions to previous visual representation of an emoji, and these propositions, and they expressed more emotion, more disagreements only increased when the “same” emoji intensely, and were more positive in valence than text. were compared across platforms. Similarly, [18] characterized exchanges involving Research on photographic images typically does reaction GIFs and images in a Sherlock fan group on not focus on their conversational functions [e.g., 25, Tumblr as conversational interaction. 26]. However, there are some notable exceptions. [28] One of the very few papers to consider stickers [13] examined the use of personal photographs in online suggested that stickers, together with photographs, chat. [15] analyzed a community image blog and found videos, and emoji, function to improve the six conversation styles, including image quote and interpretability of messages and help users express text-in-picture. [6] studied Radar, a mobile application complex emotions. At the same time, the author noted that allows users to post personal photographs, (p. 3) that stickers can lend instant messages “an air of including ‘selfies,’ to a private list of invited friends. equivocation, allowing the conversation to be shaped Users of Radar sometimes exploited the chronological by the different parties as it went along.” This nature of the app to post sequences of images meant to observation recalls the findings of [16] regarding the tell a story. [5] found that images on a messaging potential ambiguity of emoji. application were woven into the thread of conversation There is thus considerable evidence that each meaningfully, rather than simply being mentioned. graphicon type can function pragmatically in CMC, Another study [10] explored how selfies are although little research has taken a conversational or perceived and used in the U.S., U.K., and China discourse approach to graphicon use. Moreover, most through surveys and interviews. The respondents previous studies have analyzed graphicon types reported that selfies often elicited comments and individually, rather than comparing across types. In encouraged conversational partners to send their own this study, we employ a discourse-pragmatic approach selfies in reply. U.S. respondents also indicated a high and systematically compare multiple graphicon types enjoyment of conversational partners ‘playing on’ in order to understand how they function in relation to shared images, especially on Snapchat. one another in conversational threads. An internet meme is a “particular idea presented as Specifically, we address two research questions: a written text, image, language ‘move,’ or some other RQ1: How often are different graphicons used in FB unit of cultural ‘stuff’” that is taken up and spreads comment threads in groups devoted to rapidly [11, p. 202]. Considerable research has been graphical content? done on how memes form and spread [e.g., 22, 23], but there has been less research on how such memes are RQ2: How do different graphicons function in FB used in conversational exchanges. An exception is comment threads in groups devoted to [29], which explores CAHOOTS, a chat system that graphical content? continuously analyzes participants’ chat and suggests relevant humorous images and internet memes. In 3. Methodology comparison to random image insertion and plain text chat, users preferred using CAHOOTS. They felt that 3.1. Data the way the system allowed human and computer to riff off one another enabled them to express their The use of multiple graphicon types in Facebook unique sense of humor. Another study analyzed how comment threads is a relatively new and as yet not internet memes were used in the Occupy Wall Street widespread phenomenon. To locate groups with a rich movement [17]. It found that image memes facilitated concentration of graphicons to analyze for the purpose conversation from divergent perspectives and increased of this study, we searched in Facebook for the the accessibility of the discourse. keywords (ASCII) Emoticons, Emoji/Smileys, 2186 Stickers, GIFs, and Images/Memes.2 No groups on the pragmatic functions of each type of graphicon for